


Peer Review

by sideraclara (angeloscastiel)



Category: Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling
Genre: Community: HPFT, M/M
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2018-06-14
Updated: 2018-06-14
Packaged: 2019-05-23 06:11:33
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 409
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14928687
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/angeloscastiel/pseuds/sideraclara
Summary: albus potter and scorpius malfoy are two early-career researchers specialising in the history of the statute of secrecy. they do not agree.





	Peer Review

**Author's Note:**

> this story is written entirely in the form of academic articles and/or chapters written by our warring protaganists. it is partly scorbus, partly an exploration of the statute of secrecy, and wholly self-indulgent. join me

 

**Journal of Magical History, 122: 2 (2032)**

 

A. Potter, _The Statute of Secrecy by Scorpius H. Malfoy. Hogsmeade: Hogsmeade Academic Press (2031)_ [Review]

 

_The Statute of Secrecy_ is certainly a welcome addition to a field of scholarship that has for too long been dominated by works that address this topic in only the most cursory way, such as Bagshot's _History of Magic_. 1 For the first major Anglophone contribution to the historiography of the Statute, however, it may be said that Malfoy's study suffers from the low bar set by the existing scholarship: it does not, in my view, seek to raise that bar sufficiently higher. Malfoy demonstrates an excellent knowledge of the French and German scholarship, but this comes at the cost of original research: he seldom engages with primary sources beyond the predictable, such as the original Statute text and an established canon of extremist pamphlets circulated in major European cities such as London, Paris, Munich, and Vienna. These texts have, as I am sure the _Journal of Magical History_ 's readers are aware, been ably studied by scholars such as Rathbone (1889); Hoffmann (1919); Fontaine (1937); and Ziegler (1965). To his credit, Malfoy's extensive bibliography does provide the reader with the references to these seminal works, and his final chapter on the impact of the Statute on European magical societies shows the direction that continental Statute studies has taken, highlighting an impressive range of recent contributions in the fields of economic, social, political, and spell-development history. As a synthesis of the research that has been carried out to date on the Statute, Malfoy's text has clear value. The extent to which it advances our understanding of this most formative period is, however, questionable.

 

* * *

1 B. Bagshot, _A History of Magic_ , London: Ministry of Magic Department of Education (1970).

 

* * *

Author's response: _I thank the reviewer for the time he has taken to read the book and write this review. However, his criticisms lead me to suggest that perhaps he has misunderstood the purpose of the book: it was, indeed, intended as a synthesis of existing scholarship, for use in the undergraduate classroom or as an accessible overview for the non-specialist reader. If the reviewer is seeking more primary source analysis, I suggest he may consult my doctoral thesis, which is also currently under contract with Hogsmeade Academic Press:_ "Hidden Women: The Bamberg Coven and the Beginnings of the Statute of Secrecy, 1625-1685." _Facultas Magiae Universitatis Parisiensis (2030)._

 


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